GRETA SPEAKS TO JOHN Q. KELLY, BETH AND DAVE AFTER HEARING

Transcript by Michelle Says So
May 17, 2006

JOHN Q. KELLY: This is a multi-front battle. It’s not just the civil case, it’s part of my job since I’ve been engaged here sort of to push them down there after I got involved in November there was new light breathed into the investigation and they have been working hard. They’ve got up to 91 tips from the show they did…they’ve been following up on all of them. There were a couple of other witnesses, in fact, one that I was involved with Dave that was brought to his attention that they are checking out now and a lot of other things that have been going on that we just sort of touch base on.

GRETA: Do you have any sense of optimism that it is going to be solved through a criminal investigation in Aruba at this point?

JOHN: I’m not optimistic, but there’s hope. It’s going to be something quirky at this point.

GRETA …someone finally comes forward and says “I know this, and here it is.”

JOHN: Yeah and it’s going to be someone slipped, or talked, or said the wrong thing in an unguarded moment then we catch a break.

GRETA: It’s suprising that the reward, there is a lot of money on the table that usually attracts information…NONE here.

JOHN: None. I mean, the $250,000 just for information leading to a recovery or something like that. You think anybody who knew anything would hopefully turn on their best friend or if they thought it might even be good information, to come forward and share it right away…so it’s almost like the ‘almost perfect crime.”

GRETA: They are searching today…another search. What provoked this search and where was it?

JOHN: It was in the sea. I don’t know the exact location, but it was based on information we received from the witness.

GRETA: What are they looking for? At this point, I don’t mean to be particularly graphic, but if Natalee was placed in the sea, it seems like there would not be a lot of clues left.

JOHN: Yeah, but there would be a recovery possibly.

GRETA: That whole thing about the trap, is that what they are looking for?

JOHN: They are just looking for weights or something like that, where there would be some indication still or some possibility of a recovery.

GRETA: Deputy Chief Dompig, totally out of the picture at this point?

JOHN: He hasn’t called me (laughs)

GRETA: He hasn’t called me…he hung up on me the last time I tried to call him.

JOHN: Yeah, totally out of the picture as far as I know. By the way, a piece of information and a lot of talk about Janssen stepping down this summer and leaving the case. Absolutely no truth to that.

GRETA: Is she going to stay on until it is solved?

JOHN: Well, she said until next year.

Beth and Dave Speak

GRETA: Dave I think that you and Beth have been unable to catch a breath or get any good luck on this, and even today you came all the way from Mississippi to go to the hearing, and you never made it.

DAVE: Never made it. My plane…fog got us caught up in Cincinnati and just as I got here the hearing was over.

GRETA: I have to tell you, seeing the father of a missing child would be quickly racing up with his luggage to the courthouse…it’s hard to watch that. Just hoping to get some answers.

DAVE: Yeah, sometimes you just can’t catch a break, but maybe we will this time.

GRETA: Beth, you sat in the courtroom and watched it…what do you think? Were you nervous?

BETH: Oh Greta, I haven’t been that nervous and anxious and just so emotional…it took me back to June. It honestly did. I think that the difficult task she has before her. And I know it won’t be an easy decision, whatever she comes to…I know that.

GRETA: Can you live with a decision that the case gets thrown out…what happens then?

BETH: You know Greta, after sitting there today and seeing what is before her (judge) I know that we will be respectful for whatever decision she comes to. Of course we wanted her to hear us, but I know it’s a difficult task before her and we will have to be respectful and supportive of her decision that she hands down.

GRETA: You know Dave, when I first met both of you down in Aruba, I thought this was a day story. Whether there would be good news or bad news. I never dreamed that the three of us would be sitting in NY a year later, still no answers. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?

DAVE: Well, I had a flight plan for Aruba to go home within 3 days, and here we are almost a year later. It is unbelievable.

GRETA: The most recent search, do you have any hope in that search today?

DAVE: We initially discounted the witness and we called his bluff and he put himself on the line of being deported from Aruba. So, maybe there is something there.

GRETA: What is it that he claims he might have seen or might have known…did he actually see something? Is that what is going on with this latest witness?

DAVE: Well, I don’t want to get in too much details, but he indicated that he saw something and he had some evidence. We made some arrangements with him and Jossy Mansur to meet directly with the prosecutor. So, maybe there’s something to it.

GRETA: Beth, do you have any faith in these latest searches or do you have search fatigue at this point?

BETH: Hmmm…I think I have search fatigue at this point. I know Tim Miller is trying to gear up and go back to the island and I think that there is always that possibility, there’s always that chance and we just have to keep hopeful. It just becomes an overwhelming task of just wondering…are we ever going to get any type of break at all? I just don’t know.

GRETA: Why do you think you can’t catch a break. This has been going on…whether it’s Dave at the landfill in 200,000 degrees, and you handing out flyers and asking questions. It’s a year later, and it’s like you haven’t gotten a break.

BETH: And you know I really thought we were. I really thought that we would have with reward money…in fact that once we raised it to $250,000…just information that leads to her whereabouts. Anything! I mean anything! And we have the million in place for her safe return. But I just kept thinking that was going to help…that was going to bring about something. It’s just hard for me to realize that a year has gone by and it didn’t…absolutely nothing.

GRETA: Dave, is there one major blunder in the investigation that makes you the maddest?

DAVE: The most obvious was when they waited nine days in which to make an arrest when Beth handed the three suspects over on a silver platter...the first day. It seems like they just turned their head and decided to look elsewhere.

GRETA: It’s hard to imagine your two lives. What it’s come to. You both have gone off, have other families, other marriages and now you are back together…to do the worst thing, to try and find your daughter.

BETH: I don’t think that any parent can imagine themselves being in our shoes….it’s just unbelievable that we have to be here this long, too. Just searching…just searching for anything to lead us to what they did with her that night. And that’s what’s been so frustrating about it. It’s just gone on for so long now.

GRETA: Dave, when you see other missing children, do you ever imagine the pain can be as bad as it is…and now you see these other stories…hundreds of them. Every night we do them.

DAVE: You sit down and watch TV, flip through the channels and see all of it, and then all of a sudden you are thrown into it, and then you have a new respect for those people who have lost missing loved ones.

GRETA: How did you first hear that Natalee was missing?

DAVE: I was sitting on the back patio enjoying Memorial Day weekend. Matt called and indicated that Natalee missed her flight and that Beth was on her way to Aruba on a private jet.

GRETA: What do you think, there’s my daughter acting like an 18 year old?

DAVE: Oh no…I was concerned. I know she was very prompt…always on time, never late for anything. It’s just by the book…just dot the I’s and cross the T’s…I knew something was wrong.

GRETA: (to Beth) And you were on the road when you got the cell phone call.

BETH: I was.

GRETA: Likewise, you didn’t think this was just…

BETH: I knew immediately. I knew within seconds.

GRETA: Is it just Natalee’s personality?

BETH: I think from a mother’s intuition and just of course knowing Natalee…no, I knew immediately. I even was calling a friend of mine just trying to find out if they knew of anyone who was a private pilot. And I remember telling her and we talked about it…it happens just like this, doesn’t it? I knew then.

GRETA: And your life immediately changed in a split second…and nothing has been the same for either one of you.

BETH: No.

GRETA: Can you go without thinking about this for a day, Dave?

DAVE: No…you think about it all the time. You wake up thinking about it, you think about it all day. You know, you work and your work helps you get it off your mind. But you still have that slight moment of whatever is on your mind…you go to bed thinking about it, you even dream about it. What happened and where is she?

GRETA: Do you, I remember talking to Sharon Rocha, and she told me that she would hear the phone ring, and she would think it’s Laci…and then, oh no, it’s not Laci. I mean you get sort of those phantom thoughts that it’s a daughter gone.

BETH: You know I had my first dream about Natalee about two weeks ago, Greta. And that was just really…I was just so…I think some parents would be difficult to dream about their missing loved one, but to me, it had been so long since I had a dream about Natalee before June. It was wonderful…it was the first time and it was about two weeks ago.

GRETA: We haven’t seen either one of you have lost your temper and broken down. I mean, I imagine this isn’t how you really are in private about this.

BETH: Oh no…no.

DAVE: You have those bad days.

BETH: Yeah, sometimes you have really bad days. Really bad days. Absolutely.

GRETA: Do you ever think that there is a point where you stop? You give up…you say you are not going to get the answers.

DAVE: You can’t. If you have kids, you understand that you don’t give up on your kids. You just don’t all of a sudden say, well, I’m just going to stop. Sometimes you think about it…how much longer can I go…how much longer can I continue doing this…and someone will come up and give you that support and a call, or a thank you card, or whatever. And it will get you fired up again.

GRETA: And we look at your families…all the families were down there.

BETH: We’ve been so fortunate and we still have a huge support group, as Dave said. There are people that are encouraging us and supporting us on a daily basis to get to the bottom of it. I just don’t think it’s just Dave and I, her stepmother and stepfather want an answer…a lot of us do.

GRETA: Will Karin Janssen solve this? Is she the one, if it can be solved?

BETH: Well I think if she could have done it, she would have done it a long time ago.

GRETA: So you are finished with her? I mean in your mind, she is out right now.

BETH: Well I certainly hope she can prove me wrong. And I would love nothing more for her to solve this. But, a lot of time has passed by...a lot of frustration, and I think she had a prime opportunity to solve this.

GRETA: Has she been good to you in a sense that she is been dismissive…is there a way to describe your relationship with her?

BETH: I think that her relationship with, and I can speak for myself, it was very difficult for me to get her to communicate with the family…and I had been told by several officials there that they do communicate with families during a crisis like this…but for some reason I was just not able to get communication from her. Of course John Kelly has been very successful at it…that’s a good thing.

GRETA: How about you Dave? In terms of dealing with the police and Karin Janssen?

DAVE: Well, you know my book was out, and I think there are some police officers who are working against us…I think there is a lot more that is working with us, but there are some elements there that I think helped these kids out.

GRETA: An unbelievable amount of sadness I see in you guys. Early on I saw you with more drive, now I feel the sadness. It just doesn’t go away.

BETH: No. No, it doesn’t . You know what I think with me, I think that, of course the sadness is so overwhelming but I’ll be honest Greta, the anger, the anger really tends to override the sadness when I see what all Natalee has missed and what she is missing, and what she will continue to miss for the rest of her life…and THAT is what drives me.

GRETA: And I’ve seen it in a lot of parents is that when they are driven and when they are looking for answers, you don’t feel that sadness because they are on such a mission to find the child…and then you get to the point where it’s like, ‘what’s the next step?’

DAVE: Well, you’ve got a picture up on the wall and imagine her walking through…you just can’t get that out of your mind. You just keep on going.